How have the financial markets performed?
Equities
Equity markets had a volatile quarter. April was a poor month for investors, with negative returns across almost all asset classes. May featured a recovery, followed by losses in June. Remarkably, negative sentiment on equity markets in June was limited to Europe. Outside Europe, the upward trend in equity markets continued unabated. Despite all the fluctuations, the second quarter of 2024 was still a good period for global stock markets. Once again, US equities (4.7%) outperformed European equities (1.3%), helped by the stronger US dollar. Emerging markets posted the best performance in the quarter with a price increase of more than 6%, mainly thanks to better-than-expected figures from China.
Bonds
While European equities were out of favour in June, European corporate bonds delivered positive monthly returns. For European government bonds, the picture was mixed. German capital market rates fell, while in France they rose due to political uncertainty. European capital market rates rose slightly over the second quarter as a whole, as reflected in the negative returns on government bonds of over 1%. European corporate bonds just about achieved positive returns in the past quarter, ranging from 0.1% to 2% (depending on the assessment of the risk of the underlying issuers).